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| I have been listening and following the instructions here:
http://www.learningmeditation.com/reducing.htm
and at the end it says that "some days you will feel like meditating for 5 minutes, and others 30." I have been doing this for a few days and I can only stay focused for like a few minutes. I'm worried that I'm not doing it right or something. Does it matter how long I do it for? |
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| you've got the rest of your life to get it right,
be patient
give yourself a pat on the back for starting what could be a journey that will last your lifetime |
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| When I first started I couldn't hold it for 10 breaths.... It's like most things you'll get better with practice. |
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| Okay thanks. That's reassuring. |
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| Chopman, you could also try a zen meditation idea. When you get distracted, walk around the house mindfully. Try to stay with the breath and keep your eye lids low, so that you can see, and walk around a room or two rooms. Try for a figure eight , the infinity figure, or a circle. Start out slow and slowly speed up. When you come to a point where you feel no distraction sit down again. Continue focussing on your breath. The group I did this with ended up walking very fast in the end of the walking session,. which was about mid-point of their meditation, sort of a intermission. I had real good results with it. I had a great surge of qi when I did this with the zen group. Funny, no one else fealt anything, but they weren't doing a Taoist meditation in their minds. Their intention was strictly zen. |
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| don't forget - what you are trying to do right now is concentrate... meditation comes after the art of concentration has been mastered...
it won't happen over night, even some very advanced meditators I know have troubles some days calming their minds 
I was at a yoga conference a few weeks ago and I got the best advice from Sri Dharma Mittra... he said:
your mind wants to interfere with your concentration, it wants to distract you and will pull up things that you haven't thought about for years to distract you... but you tell your mind... "MIND, Not now - I'm busy!"
That little bit of advice, no matter how many times I need to use it in one sitting, helps me bring my awareness back to my intention, and away from whatever my mind in throwing at me.
Good luck |
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| shnen - 2006-05-17 7:07 AM
I was at a yoga conference a few weeks ago and I got the best advice from Sri Dharma Mittra... he said:
your mind wants to interfere with your concentration, it wants to distract you and will pull up things that you haven't thought about for years to distract you... but you tell your mind... "MIND, Not now - I'm busy!"
I hope he was kidding. One of the paradoxical bits about meditation is the harder you try the more problems you create. Really the stronger you strive in any particular direction, the harder the counter stroke as the mind rebalances itself. It's a "For every action, there's an equal and opposite reaction" sort of thing. Which is the reason why some of the most boring meditation are the most effective.
Anyway, there are a number of myths where the hero tracks down a god or a demon or a faery or some other magic being. Once they get ahold of the entity they're supposed to hold onto them until the being acquiesces. They might hold them down, sit on them, get them by the throat, etc. It really doesn't matter, so long as they continue to hold them. Often times the entity in question holds a loved one, the ability to fix a problem, or IS the loved one themselves under a spell. The entity always has the power of polymorphism, and changes into the most pleasing and demonic shapes possible. They offer just about everything imaginable if the hero will just relax their hold for a moment. Naturally if the hero gives in for a second they're lost, and the entity will destroy them.
Meditations the same way. You have your hold in the form of whatever seed you're using. The mind assumes a variety of pleasing or demonic forms to get you to stop. Sooner or later it finds something that distracts you, and the process begins again.
The loved one is actually our true selves, and if we can hold on long enough, the mind acquiesces and we live happily ever after.
Edited by GreenJello 2006-05-20 10:12 PM
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| Chopman: I have been listening and following the instructions here:http://www.learningmeditation.com/reducing.htm and at the end it says that "some days you will feel like meditating for 5 minutes, and others 30." I have been doing this for a few days and I can only stay focused for like a few minutes. I'm worried that I'm not doing it right or something. Does it matter how long I do it for?
===> Obviously, you should direct your question to the Author on the Website you quoted. |
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| Meditation is an exercise to put at rest the chatter in your mind. The mind is conditioned to wander & we need to descipline it so that the chatter stops & we can "know" our true self. It takes time to discipline mind & patience & persistence is required to achieve that.
However, if you try to meditate without keeping down "your baggage", it would be difficult. By "your baggage" I mean, all negative feelings, all bitterness that we keep on accumulating in a day's work. Try doing this exercise which I call "Forgiving-Thanking Exercise" before you start meditation :
i) Forgive yourself for whatever you did & which you didn't like
ii) Forgive your friends who didn't support you when you needed them
ii) Forgive your parents who failed to care for you to the extent you expected
iii) Forgive you enemies for whatever they did to you
iv) Forgive everybody, every living thing
iv) Forgive God for not answering your prayer etc.
Now,
i) Thank God for whatever good things you have today
ii) Thank your friends for everything they did for you
iii) Thank your enemies who made you wiser & forced you to learn the art of survival in this world
iv) Thank all, whoever helped you, cared for you
Just Forgive & Thank - realise this... let this feeling go deep inside...
... No ill feeling
... Only Benevolence
Let all biitterness melt away. Let all excitement melt away. Let your ego melt away.
Now the chatter will be less. More the chatter, less the focus. As the chatter reduces, the duration of your staying focussed will increase. Don't force this chatter/ this wandering to stop. Just be an observer. Keep watching. Be aware. Keep trying. Practice makes you perfect.
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| devotee - 2006-05-22 11:00 AM
Meditation is an exercise to put at rest the chatter in your mind. The mind is conditioned to wander & we need to descipline it so that the chatter stops & we can "know" our true self. It takes time to discipline mind & patience & persistence is required to achieve that.
However, if you try to meditate without keeping down "your baggage", it would be difficult. By "your baggage" I mean, all negative feelings, all bitterness that we keep on accumulating in a day's work. Try doing this exercise which I call "Forgiving-Thanking Exercise" before you start meditation :
i) Forgive yourself for whatever you did & which you didn't like
ii) Forgive your friends who didn't support you when you needed them
ii) Forgive your parents who failed to care for you to the extent you expected
iii) Forgive you enemies for whatever they did to you
iv) Forgive everybody, every living thing
iv) Forgive God for not answering your prayer etc.
Now,
i) Thank God for whatever good things you have today
ii) Thank your friends for everything they did for you
iii) Thank your enemies who made you wiser & forced you to learn the art of survival in this world
iv) Thank all, whoever helped you, cared for you
Just Forgive & Thank - realise this... let this feeling go deep inside...
... No ill feeling
... Only Benevolence
Let all biitterness melt away. Let all excitement melt away. Let your ego melt away.
Now the chatter will be less. More the chatter, less the focus. As the chatter reduces, the duration of your staying focussed will increase. Don't force this chatter/ this wandering to stop. Just be an observer. Keep watching. Be aware. Keep trying. Practice makes you perfect.
that is beautiful 
Edited by SCThornley 2006-05-22 11:10 AM
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| I have heard it said that five minutes a day is all that is required to beging turning the mind. Relax into it and it will come.
Metta,
Courtney |
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Can't Meditate for long
